New XBLA deal problematic for Braid developer

August 11th, 2008, 19:22 Posted By: Shrygue

via Games Industry


Jonathan Blow, the man behind the award-winning XBLA title Braid, has revealed that the new deal structure put in place by Microsoft could be enough to prevent him from working on Arcade titles in the future.

"What would keep me from putting another game on Arcade again is just that they've changed the business deal - at least as I've heard," he told Gamasutra. "If it's as I've heard that it is, I couldn't even necessarily break even."

Braid was signed long before the new deal structure was put in place, and while Microsoft has been coy on the details, some sources have cited a drop in royalty levels from around the 75 per cent mark to around the 30 per cent level.

Blow added that he had no plans to develop any additions to Braid in the future, regardless of how well it sold.

"Money is not really my goal, so even if Braid does very well... that's not my concern," he said. "I'm not going to do a sequel to Braid -- I don't care how many copies it sells.

"I mean, maybe in five years when I'm motivated, if I have a really fresh idea for it. But I'm not waiting in the wings with a level pack, or DLC or anything."

And he also revealed that while he'd been thinking about designing a Braid theme for the new Xbox Live, the intrusion from advertisements had put him off anything on the current system.

"I didn't want to do them on the old Dashboard, because it's covered with ads everywhere," he said. "Braid is about setting a mood and a feeling, and you can't do it while there's like, a Burger King ad there, flashing... I just felt that juxtaposition would have been bad for the game."

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